2007 tour de france
 

does anyone know where to watch this live? preferably on the net.

btw looks like today will be a good finish.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

Boy it seems no one cares about the tour anymore. Any big names left or have they all been caught chaeting

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

ya i really dont know who the favorites are. kloden and sastre are riding i think. espn doesnt even have link on their main page.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

It's on VS. I've watched every stage so far. Today was the best. Cancellara was an absolute beast. I haven't seen a flat stage finish that exciting in a while.

Vinokourov, Sastre, Kloden and Valverde are the main threats I think. Michael Rogers could be a threat as well.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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ya i really dont know who the favorites are. kloden and sastre are riding i think. espn doesnt even have link on their main page.

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Velonews.com is a great site for info. Their daily writeups are great to read even if you've watched the stage coverage. Also, vs.com has daily entries from Liggett and Sherwin.

On that note, Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin are in my opinion the best sports commentators in any sport. They are fantastic in a sport which, like baseball, has a fair amount of down time where nothing major is going on.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

I follow religiously as always obviously, glued to the screen everyday. I just thought maybe the interest here would not been so high as there aren't that many Americans anymore. However the Tour is just as fascinating, even more, without the big profiles. Look at now i.e., you have a team that really intend to do everything to keep the yellow yersey, they have 2 riders that try to reach agreements with the sprinter teams.

Today they almost messed it up, creating a fascinating sprint as the sprinter teams were completely exhausted at the point where they actually should start working. Brilliant move from Cancellara today, excellent. Reading the situation better than anyone. Tomorrow they are back at it, Hushovd talking to Ewen, Ewen asking Boonen if he can speak to Zabel etc.. No team really in charge of anything, nobody strong enough to dominate anything, a fascinating chaos with almost 200 riders.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

dunno what vs is.

and ya i obv use velonews for my coverage. today i had the live updates goin on velonews, espn and yahoo. sounded like a spectacular finish wish i coulda seen it.

still motivated me to hop on the ole fuji and crank out 35m in 92f heat.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

I used to watch every morning on OLN. Get up, watch lance, go back to sleep.

I couldn't care less now. It died a quick death in the USA without lance and with all the doping.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

rasmussen for the kotm, mcewen for green

who's gonna be yellow? vino, kloden, ???

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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dunno what vs is.

and ya i obv use velonews for my coverage. today i had the live updates goin on velonews, espn and yahoo. sounded like a spectacular finish wish i coulda seen it.

still motivated me to hop on the ole fuji and crank out 35m in 92f heat.

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I believe VS. is the outdoor network, with a new name. You should also check out cyclingnews.com for updates, I think they have a little more than velonews; rider reactions and such.

Levi should be considered a minor favorite as well. Except for the bad time trail to open last year, he was usually up close to front in the mountains. I think Kloden is the strongest though. He should have won last year, if the team had any sense. Of course, who knows what will happen with that team. With vino and him both....they never seemed to work to well together at t-mobile.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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Boy it seems no one cares about the tour anymore. Any big names left or have they all been caught chaeting

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In Europe it's more popular than ever.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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I couldn't care less now. It died a quick death in the USA without lance and with all the doping.

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I wouldn't have known it was going on at all except that there are twice as many fat guys in multi-colored spandex riding their bikes around my neighborhood.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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dunno what vs is.


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http://www.versus.com/

Channel 608 on DirecTV.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

leipheimer always is close but never wins much on the tour it seems.

is anyelse actually bothered about doping???
im not a serious cycling fan but if its a decent tour im not botherd about dopers?

how do otehrs feel abt doping?

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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On that note, Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin are in my opinion the best sports commentators in any sport. They are fantastic in a sport which, like baseball, has a fair amount of down time where nothing major is going on.

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Yeah, I like those guys a lot.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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It's on VS. I've watched every stage so far. Today was the best. Cancellara was an absolute beast. I haven't seen a flat stage finish that exciting in a while.

Vinokourov, Sastre, Kloden and Valverde are the main threats I think. Michael Rogers could be a threat as well.

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Dont forget cadel cause he is gunna smash em all in the climbs. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

Hell of a stage today... four man break early on in the stage, which was very nicely ridden down with a lot of teams taking control to reel them in on the last climb...

Great sprint to the finish too... Cancellara managed to hold on to the yellow during a stage many thought he would lose the yellow *not a great climber* and he rode a very nice race, almost losing control on the descent to the finish...

Vinokourov, one of the pre-race favorites got in a crash and was totally out of the race until almost his whole team came back to try to bring him back to the peloton... with some road rash on the back of his right thigh and elbow he managed to lose 1:30 which is a huge amount to spot the leaders, but it really could've been worse and he rode incredibly hard to finish that close to the field... he rode the kind of race that shows why the Tour is so fun to watch determination and teamwork are the two biggest keys to success out there with so little between the best riders out there...

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

lookin forward to watching hilites later, is vinokourov [censored] now or is he still in contention with others?

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

he's 1:30 back and has some minor injuries... not sure if he'll be 100% for tomorrow... gonna be a pretty tough go for him...

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

he did amazing to get back to within 1:30, his arse was bleedin badly

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

Anybody who follows cycling knows Fabian wasn't losing the yellow today.

He's a tremendous classics rider and today was a classics type stage.

Stage 7 is gonna be when he loses it.

Kloden has a broken tailbone and vino should be fine. he alwyas does bad first day in big mtns though. Kloden...tialbone shouldn't effect his riding altho should be very painful.

Also vino got lucky on the downhill. Its easier to gain on the downhill if you aren't in one big group.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

wow i cant imagine cycling thousands of miles with a freakin broken tailbone.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

VINO is riding with a chip on his shoulder with what happened to him last year and i dont see 1:30 stopping him from putting people into serious trouble in the mountains. If you've watched him ride in the vuelta last year and the dauphine this year he is a monster in the mountains and will attack non stop until he gets away.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

Vuelta's final climbs are slightly weaker and the stages are less strenuous.

In this year's Dauphine, vino never showed any real strength in the real mtn stages. The stages he should were the hilly ones that he usually breaks aways and wins.

His TDF mtn history has also been spotty. He has never really been strong in the big mtn stages. He usually isn't a good starter (dropping tons of minutes) in first big mtn stages.

Altho, this is all against doped competition. However, he's been under close scrutiny with the whole men in black scandal. I highly doubt he'd be able to dope this tour much less anyone else. French doping authorities are the most stringent.

I always thought kloden was a better bet...however as you saw today, they only sent 1 man to bring him back whereas they sent the entire time to get vino back. Sponsors and team are all behind vino.

If you ask me, its a duel between levi and kloden.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

there is no way levi wins the tour, id be shocked to see him on the podium if you ask me contador could do better in GC if they designated him the team leader

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

contador is a little bit too young to last long in a 3 week tour. Prime endurance event years are quite later in life. This is due to the different muscles being used. Valverde is quite young but faded in last year's vuelta.

Although, contador has a bright future. But not this year, Levi helped him win Paris-Nice and helped Hincapie win the US championships. Levi's been racking up the favors within the team. This is Levi's time and team for now.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

it is on vs

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

if you dont have directtv...try

www.myp2p.eu

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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I couldn't care less now. It died a quick death in the USA without lance and with all the doping.


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Not true; the short-term fans who didn't really like cycling may be gone, but the American cyclists are loving it. It's been a great tour so far, really dramatic. BTW the doping thing is so overblown; it's no different than baseball or any olympic sport 10 years ago, they're just actually getting caught in cycling.

It seems like there are way more stupid crashes this year and I was wondering if it was related to all the first timers messing up the peloton; supposedly 35% of the field is in the Tour for the first time, which is the highest percent ever.

It's gonna be really interesting when they hit the mountains; at this point we have no idea really who's going to shine.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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I couldn't care less now. It died a quick death in the USA without lance and with all the doping.


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Not true; the short-term fans who didn't really like cycling may be gone, but the American cyclists are loving it. It's been a great tour so far, really dramatic. BTW the doping thing is so overblown; it's no different than baseball or any olympic sport 10 years ago, they're just actually getting caught in cycling.

It seems like there are way more stupid crashes this year and I was wondering if it was related to all the first timers messing up the peloton; supposedly 35% of the field is in the Tour for the first time, which is the highest percent ever.

It's gonna be really interesting when they hit the mountains; at this point we have no idea really who's going to shine.

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I agree with this. I like Lance so watching him dominate was a lot of fun. From a cycling perspective though, the Tour has gotten a lot better because it's gone from "Can Ullrich/Beloki/Basso find a way to beat Armstrong?" where the odds heavily favored an answer of no to "Which of these few guys can win? Does one of these 5 outside favorites have a reasonable chance?"

It's much more open and exciting. The problem with Lance for the neutral viewer is that he was the best in both the mountains and the time trials. When one guy is the best at both of those he has to screw up or get unlucky with a crash or something to lose. This year for example, the best time trialist has basically no chance because he's not good enough in the mountains.

On that note I really wish Roberto Heras were still riding. I really liked that guy. I haven't been following cycling that long but my two favorite stages ever are the 2002 Tour de France stage from Pau to La Mongie where Heras set an incredible tempo on the last climb and destroyed the field other than Lance and Beloki and the mountain ITT that was the second to last stage in the 2003 Vuelta. He'll probably be too old but he should be back next year from his suspension.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

prediction for saturday: i read in my paper this morning that kloden cant even stand up on the pedals, so he should be out today. other than that, i dont think anything big for GC will happen

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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I used to watch every morning on OLN. Get up, watch lance, go back to sleep.

I couldn't care less now. It died a quick death in the USA without lance and with all the doping.

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nothing more than a lame 99er.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

kloden and vino seemed comfortable today staying with the main group until the finish. Tomorrow will be a true test for all the big favorites i'd recommend watching tomorrows stage

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

im pretty amazed how downhill the popularity seems to be going. i for one still love it and with a fair few aussies in the mix its awesome to watch.

i havn't been this excited staying up late watching a live sporting event in years.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

actually the cycling insiders have commented the sport has seemingly the cleanest its been in years. However, usually public opinion reacts slower to actual progress.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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actually the cycling insiders have commented the sport has seemingly the cleanest its been in years. However, usually public opinion reacts slower to actual progress.

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the only way would believe doping/roids have lessened is if times and speeds were worse.

still, i dont really care if they cheat from an entertainment standpoint.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

great stage today.. rasmussen immense

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

yea great final climb. Valverde and contador looked real strong along with moreau. Vino was suffering bad and he's gonna be forced to attack, being further down on GC than expected, next stage or in the pyrenees which should make it fun to watch.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

Rasmussen is the most insane climber ever, so fast and steady. It's interesting this year with the field busted up he actually has a chance, if he can stay strong in the Pyrenees too he can put some big time gaps in and not get caught in the TT.

Mayo looked good but he has a history of big days and then cracking; you have to suspect he'll crack at some point after putting in so much effort today. Contador really looked like he wasn't struggling at all. It's kind of suspicious that Popo went with Contador and nobody really stayed with Levi; I wonder if Johan is hedging his bets and maybe seeing if Levi isn't so strong then they'll see what Contador can do.

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the only way would believe doping/roids have lessened is if times and speeds were worse.


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BTW doping doesn't really affect the one-day performances that much in road cycling; the huge effect is on recovery. Guys like Virenque never could have attacked day after day without help. Perhaps this year we'll see more guys crack really bad after big efforts.

Re: 2007 tour de france
 

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yea great final climb. Valverde and contador looked real strong along with moreau. Vino was suffering bad and he's gonna be forced to attack, being further down on GC than expected, next stage or in the pyrenees which should make it fun to watch.

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Kloden looked great too. I wonder if it is a mistake for him to wait on Vino, considering he was the highest placed of ALL the GC contenders. He pulled vino, Menchov, Levi, Sastre, and Evens for a long time, then went back and pulled vino the rest of the way. I really think he would have been in the top 3 today if not for putting so much effort into pulling everyone else up the mountain. What a team to have a talent like Kloden not even be the captain of the team. He has probably been the most consistent top tour rider of the last 5 years. And to do all that pulling today with a fractured tail bone. Wow.